


Quiet

by chromologix



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Gen, Post-Book Series: Omen of the Stars, Swearing, sequence of events don't really match up with canon but hey, takes place a bit after the Great Battle, urmmm im new to tags sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 02:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21028523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chromologix/pseuds/chromologix
Summary: sometimes the sound of the forest comes to a standstill, and Dovewing finds herself thinking about cats in the shadows.orDovewing can't fully shake off what happened during the Great Battle. Lionblaze helps.





	Quiet

It's the quiet that gets her.

Her ears press against her skull, and she crouches close to the ground on instinct.  
Her paws tremble.

The birdsong dies and the shrill of grasshoppers peters out into nothing.  
The drag of the wind on her whiskers stills, and the way that the world around her slows is so _suffocating_.

Her breathing picks up, and she desperately tries to cast her senses out; old habits die hard, before she is slapped in the face with the realization that  
right, right fucking right, the stupid prophecy is over and she can't see _shit_ when she needs to.

But she still strains her ears anyway, still darts her eyes over every bramble, shrub, grass, as if she'll maybe pick something up if she tries hard enough.

The crack of a twig behind her sets her off running at full sprint, she hears a loud "_Hey!_" but she doesn't care because her mind is swirling with images of sharp teeth,  
she feels her scars burn as if a cat had run their claws down it again, tearing it fresh open and the memory of the sting, the _intent_ scares her so, so much.

The crashing of her pursuer through the foliage propels her legs forward, and she darts clumsily through a territory that was so much _hers.  
_But there are flat patches of land that carries the stench of a dark, rotten musk.  
There are still stains on the leaves that serve as a reminder that maybe a cat died here.

The forest that she's known all her life, with paths that she could trek backward with her eyes closed,  
the smell of home should be welcoming, the dense trees and tumbling greens should fill her with a sense of security.

Now all she sees, in between the blur of thick trunks and leaves, are flashing eyes and menacing snarls.

Shadows cast from plantation transform into giant, hulking cats and she chokes back a strangled cry, feeling like a kit all over again.

And suddenly, she bursts into open space.  
  
She tumbles, too jarred by flashes of blinding light, tripping over her paws and landing face-first into grit.  
She was busy spitting out gravel and sand when the scent of freshwater hits the roof of her mouth.  
Involuntarily, she takes a huge gulp, coughing violently when her throat tightens in a wave of fear.

Somewhere behind her, the leaves rustle.  
She gets back up on her paws, fur spiked up and hackles raised.  
Her claws unsheathe and she recalls frantically all the defensive moves her mentor taught her and thinks  
"_if i die here i really hope i don't get dumped in the lake how will any cat find me how will my family know what happened--_"

A bulky, golden cat jumps out from the broken trail she carved through the forest.  
He pants, fur sticking out with pits of twigs and forest debris, and looks at her with equal parts disbelief and annoyance.

Lionblaze.

"What." He says when he catches his breath. "Was _that_."

She doesn't reply at first, because the relief that washes over her is staggering and her feet almost buckle beneath her.  
Something must have shown on her face because his narrowed eyes soften into concern.

"Dovewing, are you okay?" He makes an effort to flatten his fur, stepping forward slowly to give her enough time to back away.

"I-" _I thought the Dark Forest cats were coming to kill me._

She doesn't say that though, because her words clog up in her throat.  
Tears burn behind her eyes, and she blinks rapidly to clear them. 

Lionblaze waits, blinking patiently. His gaze is unreadable as he sits down, curling his tail over his paws.

Something tells her he has an idea of what's running through her mind.

"I-it was." She finally manages. "It was quiet."

There's a small grimace (understanding) that curls his lip, though he doesn't say anything.  
Instead, he flicks his tail once as an invitation to sit next to him.

She makes her way over on shaky legs, steadying her breathing when she takes a place next to her mentor.   
_(Friend? Teacher? Fellow cat the prophecy fucked over? Those don't really fit.)  
__(Maybe he's family.)_

She doesn't mention, when their fur brushes against each other, how _safe_ she felt.

Even if it's just by a margin.

She feels his tail tip resting on her shoulder, and she holds onto that contact like it anchored her to the land of the living.

They sit in silence for a while, watching the waves wash over the stones on the shoreline, before he asks:

"Is it still quiet?"

She doesn't turn to face him.  
She feels the heat of the sun warming her fur, the grit of sand between her toes.  
She hears the rustling of the forest, she hears the ringing sounds of insects and the spatter of bird calls.  
Her earlier panic, still present in the dull thrum of adrenaline in her veins, slowly ebbs as she listens to the rhythm of life.

"No." She mumbles.

"Not anymore."

**Author's Note:**

> this is my...first posted fanfic! And it's warriors, of course.  
Urm, I honestly jumped into this with no real want for polish. This is raw as hell, unedited and not planned in the slightest!
> 
> I was going to write about my OCs dealing with a big, bad major event in their life but it ended up becoming a Dovewing centric thing, oh dear.  
I don't usually write for characters that aren't my own, so this is very new to me! Pardon if it's OOC :'DD  
but i might, idk. Try it out more since I'm pretty bored.
> 
> anyway aaa thanks for reading if you got this far! And please feel free to give me feedback bc //while im not aiming to be GREAT at writing, tips are still welcomed!  
(also gosh the formatting is something to get used to.)


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